Schleinitz Gets Presented

Schleinitz is a home mountain of Lienz. Above the town there's a mountain terrace, named Zettersfeld, where once farmers had herds of cattle and sheep, nowadays there are terrains for tourism, in a first place skiing. The area is really nice - some 1200 m above the sunny valley of Drau, offering a great panorama on Lienzer Dolomiten, a limestone mountain group on the other side of the valley. Schleinitz summit is another 1000 m higher - so, rather don't go on the mountain all the way from Lienz. Zettersfeld can be reached by a cable-car and by a road, which was some years ago still toll-free.

So towards the south with Schleinitz summit the Schober group ends - at least its highest peaks. Towards north a strong ridge goes towards other high peaks of Schober group - Prijakt, Hochschober and others. Towards the west Schleinitz's slopes are falling down to Isel valley and towards the east to Debanttal. On the eastern side, from below the summit, a marked path goes also towards Lienzer hut in Debanttal, so the summit can be ascended also from this side. Above Zettersfeld, on the other side of a long ridge of Neualplschneid, descending from the summit of Schleinitz towards south-east, there is a nice area of small, picturesque mountain lakes, called Neualplseen. For those, who opt not to reach the summit of Schleinitz, these lakes can also be a valuable hiking objective.

The path from Zettersfeld to Schleinitz summit is not hard. In ice or snow some passages on the northern side of Neualplschneid can require some carefulness, and also the final ascent is steep - but it is not hard. All in all - a nice hike, that's why this mountain stands here. In winter, of course, the ascent could be more demanding.

Autumn above Lienz.

Getting There

Summit view

We can reach Zettersfeld from Lienz (688 m) by the road or cable-car.
Debanttal can be reached from Lienz by car till the altitude of 1667 m, where the road is closed for public traffic.

For the long and high west approach, the trailhead starts in Ainet (747 m) or in Unteralkus (1051 m) above it.

Routes Overview

1. From Zettersfeld

The majority of visitors will hike to the summit from Zettersfeld, 1820 m (Rottmann-Alm, 1894 m). From there we hike towards the north on Goiserlemandl, 2433 m, further towards the NW to Neualplseen, 2436 m, through the broad valley, full of boulders, steep to the south summit ridge and over it to the cross, standing even before the highest point of the mountain. 3-3.5 h.

2. From Lienzer hut

The ascent from Lienzer hut, 1974 m, in Debanttal is longer. The marked Lienzer Hohenweg goes towards the SE to Trelebitschalm, 1976 m (can be also reached by a marked path from the end parking place in Debanttal), from there towards the south to Nealplseen, 2436 m and like in #1 to the summit. 3.5 h.

3. From the west

From the west many paths lead through the woods and over alpine meadows up to the Alkuser See, 2432 m, from there to Alkuser Scharte, 2633 m and over the west slope to the summit. Some 2000+ meters of elevation would mean a good six hours hike.

4. Ferrata/Klettersteig

Mathias Zehring reports that over Sattelkoepfe to the summit there's a new medium hard (?) ferrata/Klettersteig.

If arriving from Zettersfeld, we can also cross the mountain. We ascend by route #1, descend towards the west to Alkuser Scharte and return back on Zettersfeld by crossing the south slopes of Schleinitz. The return from Alkuser Scharte back to Zettersfeld is not just an easy hike, but because of many stone blocks quite time-consuming (around 2 h 30 min).

If coming from Lienzer hut to Trelebitschalm (see #2), we can also continue towards the west on Trelebitsch Toerl, 2710 m, descend some 160 m on the other side (towards the south) and ascend Alkuser Scharte and the summit from the west. So we encircle 3/4 of the mountain - and can return by the route #2 back. There can be many combinations.